Yesterday was the Annual Amity Budget Referendum. Only 471 people from Woodbridge turned out to vote out of a total of 1412 people across the school district. While this was a disappointing result, it was only 16 less people from Woodbridge than the year before, and only 26 less for all of the three towns.

The individual numbers weren’t really all that different in Woodbridge either. There was a slight movement against the budget in Woodbridge this year with 23 less people voting for the budget and 7 more people voting against it.

Bethany actually saw six more people vote in 2011 than they saw in 2010. Fifteen less people voted for the budget and twenty-one more people voted for it.

Orange saw the biggest changes. Overall they only had sixteen less people voting. However, because of the increase in the number of students from Orange at Amity, they will be hit harder than the other towns in terms of the budget. This resulted in 95 less people voting for the budget and and 79 more people voting against the budget.

As people hung around the Center in Woodbridge waiting for the polls to close some suggested that the issue in Orange is a belief that they could build their way out of a financial problem. The problem with building more houses is that more people live in the houses and it costs more to provide services to these people, such as the cost of educating the children in these new houses.

Another interesting tidbit came up. I did not know that you did not have to be registered to vote in the budget. Besides registered voters, U.S. Citizens who are listed on the property tax rolls as having at least $1000 worth of property in town can vote. One person showed up in Woodbridge who was not registered, was a property holder, but it turns out was not a U.S. citizen and because of this didn’t end up getting to vote.

With that, here are the results for last year and this year:

2010 Results

2011 Results

Fine weather and civic duty brought a strong turn out of Woodbridge residents to another well run election at the Center gym on Tuesday. Nearly 4200 voters, or about 66% of registered voters made it to the polls. Democrats led in all races except for the State Representative where Republican incumbent Themis Klarides took a majority of the votes. She won by the same percentage as she did in 2008. Democratic Incumbent State Senator Joe Crisco also easily carried Woodbridge, but in a closer race than two years ago.

Unofficial Results

The Secretary of the State's office has now made images of the ballot for the 2010 General Election available for preview.

The Woodbridge ballot is available here

Tuesday evening, candidates for Connecticut’s 17th State Senatorial District met for a final time before election day at a debate organized by the League of Women Voters in the Woodbridge Senior Center Cafeteria.

Around forty people attended the well run debate. The candidates were respectful of one another and spoke honestly and frankly about their positions and what made them different. In many ways it boiled down to traditional points from any debate. Democratic Senator Joe Crisco spoke about his years of public service and the good that he has done for the 17th District and the state as a whole. Challenger Tamath Rossi spoke how large the budget is, how high taxes are and how Senator Crisco and the Democratic Supermajority have failed to curtail spending. People who believe there is too much government and that our current financial problems have been caused by too much governmental interference in business will want to vote for Rossi. Those who believe that the government plays an important role in protecting citizens, that the financial crisis was caused by a decrease in regulation of Wall Street and other corporations and who believe that the government can play a role in creating a business friendly environment through means other than simply cutting taxes and getting out of the way will want to vote for Crisco.

Most of the attendees appeared to already clearly be supporters of one candidate the other and few minds were changed. However, the information from this debate and previous times that State Senator Crisco and Naugatuck Deputy Mayor Rossi have met is important for people still trying to make up their minds about whom to vote for on Tuesday.

The reassignment of a second grade teacher to be a reading specialist and the hiring of a new teacher to fill her place brought out one of the largest crowds to attend a Woodbridge Board of Education meeting in recent years.

Over the summer Language Arts Specialist Diane Krivda accepted an assistant principal position at the Bethany Community School. Ms. Krivda was a valued member of the Beecher Road community and it was with mixed feelings that her resignation was accepted. There was sadness that a great educator was moving on mixed with joy about the continued success of her career.

As the Woodbridge School District sought a replacement, second grade Teresa Nakouzi stepped forward and sought the position. Ms. Nakouzi has worked hard at Beecher Road and has many admirers. She has continued her education to focus on being a reading specialist and this seemed like a great opportunity to continue her career path while remaining in the Beecher Road community.

A new second grade teacher was found. Michelle Shepherd, who was well regarded as a Second Grade teacher at Beecher Road School in the past was interested in returning. The administration decided that the best course of action was to have the Ms. Shepherd begin during the school year so that Ms. Nakouzi could take up her responsibilities as a reading specialist as soon as possible.

Parents of some of Ms. Nakouzi’s students expressed concern about the reassignment at a special Board of Education meeting which took place on October 4th. Board Chair Sheila McCreven informed the parents that since this was a Special Meeting of the board, changes to the agenda were not allowed and that it would be best for the parents to attend the Regular October Meeting where the issue could properly be discussed.

During the initial Public Comment part of the meeting Woodbridge Education Association Board member Sandra Simowitz rose to speak in support of the teachers and the administration’s decision to handle the teacher reassignment the way they did. She suggested that some of the parents crossed the line from advocacy on behalf of their children to actions bordering onto abuse.

One of the parents spoke up to ask how the process could have been handled differently. Would it make sense to establish a human resources committee? Could the information have been disseminated in a more effective manner?

Regular attendees of Board of Education and Parent Teacher Organization meetings noted that issues of board structure and school communications have been worked on by both bodies recently and several expressed hope that the parents would become more active in the PTO and regular attendees of Board of Educations meetings.

Despite the large crowd and the public comments, the October Board of Education meeting was fairly short. Dr. Stella gave his report talking about how the school band performed at the opening Sound Tigers game. It was noted that the district has been chosen to host a Winter Guard Tournament which will take place in January. It is a honor for an elementary school to be so chosen.

Dr. Len Tomasello who has started as Interim Intermediate School Principal shared some of his initial experiences of the school. He spoke about spending time meeting with the students and how impressed he was with the social maturity of the children. He also had words of praise for the teachers, noting that this is his seventh position as an Interim Principal and he was especially impressed with the strength of the reading and writing programs at Beecher Road School.

Woodbridge Selectwoman Sandy Stein spoke about the progress of the building committee. At a previous Board of Education meeting, the building committee had presented three different schemes for renovating Beecher Road School. The building committee was now recommending that the Board of Education pursue scheme B, which is projected to bring many improvements especially in providing more efficient heating and cooling as well as bringing the school up to code in many areas. The cost of the project is currently projected to be $17 million and will be further discussed by the Boards of Education, Finance and Selectmen. This topic was returned to as the board approved the schedule for the capital budget requests.

The board meeting ended with a second opportunity for public comment and parents who did not prevail in preventing the reassignment of Ms. Nakouzi expressed their frustrations. They said that because they did not get their way, their words must have fallen on deaf ears and the board must simply be acting as a rubber stamp. Various members of the board disputed this interpretation of the events noting their empathy for the parents, similar struggles they had been through to get the school do take actions they had wanted. This had led to their decisions to become more involved with the process by becoming Board of Education members.

Hopefully the next Board of Education meeting will be as well attended even if it is not as contentious.

Saturday afternoon, Woodbridge citizens lined up at Blue Check Deli at the corner of Amity and Center Road to celebrate the grand opening of Blue Check’s pizza and sample some of the first pies out of the oven. Blue Check Deli has been a family owned business in Woodbridge serving sandwiches since 1976. It has been a long process to get the ovens installed ,working just right, and to refine the recipe.

The town of Woodbridge borders New Haven, a city famed for its pizza. Many people in the Greater New Haven area have stronger opinions about pizza than they do about politics or religion. I have not seen research indicating the apizza preferences of Woodbridge residents, but people waiting for second slices at Blue Check compared their first slices favorably to Sally’s in New Haven with the added advantage of it being just around the corner.

Besides more common pizzas like cheese or pepperoni, Blue Check offered broccoli rabe pizzas, bacon pizzas, and steak, pepper, and cheese pizzas. An exact menu and pricing was not available, but the folks at Blue Check said that the pizzas would be priced competitively.

The initial hours in October will be Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 2:30 until 8:30. Extended pizza hours will be announced later, although there are not currently any plans start delivery any time soon.

On Wednesday, October 6th from 6 pm to 8 pm, the Connecticut Department of Transportation, together with stakeholders from Bethany, Woodbridge, and New Haven will hold a public informational hearing about the traffic patterns around Exit 59 of the Wilbur Cross Parkway.

The meeting will take place at the Mitchell Library, 37 Harrison Street in the Westville area of New Haven. It will offer the public a chance to learn more about the study underway and provide feedback.

This is part of an ongoing process which included a stakeholders meeting at Woodbridge Town Hall back in June. There are three additional stakeholders meetings planned and an additional public meeting planned for the spring. The study is expected to continue until the fall of 2011.

Besides traffic congestion problems, environmental and business aspects are being considered. Parts of the study area are within the 100 year floodplain, and seem to flood more frequently than that. The stakeholder committee also includes members of local businesses that get impacted by the transportation problems and looks at public and pedestrian traffic as well as vehicular traffic.

There is a study website that provides more details on the study, including presentations and reports so far. Members of the public are encouraged to review the website, participate in public meetings about the study and provide feedback to local elected officials.

Monday, the Beecher Road School PTO held its first meeting of the new school year. Mothers, fathers, teachers and administrators were all in attendance to hear Second Grade teacher, Peter Halsey talk about the Responsive Classroom.

Mr. Halsey has been a long time responsive classroom consulting teacher. He spoke about the importance of teaching students good social skills to complement their academic skills. To do this, the classroom environment should be child centered with as much intrinsic motivation instead of extrinsic motivation as possible. Students who have choices in how they will learn their academic material will be better motivated.

Key aspects of the responsive classroom is the morning meeting and teachers not only talking about appropriate behavior, but modeling it. The teaching methodology fits nicely with the Reading and Writing Workshop methodologies that the school has adopted based on work at Columbia Teacher's College.

Woodbridge School District Superintendent Dr. Guy Stella also attended the PTO meeting and talked about how the responsive classroom related to the school climate project. This project tracks improvements in student behavior. Just as data from the Connecticut Mastery Tests is being used to continually improve the academic performance of Beecher Road School Students, data from the school climate project can be used to improve the social performance through programs like the responsive classroom.

The meeting ended with a vote to approve the PTO budget and a discussion about various PTO goals for the year. Popular events like the Halloween Hoot are returning and there are many opportunities to help with the PTO. To encourage greater participation, the PTO continues to have babysitting available during PTO meetings and is now having a raffle for attendees. All parents and teachers are encouraged to participate in coming PTO meetings and activities.

Members of the Woodbridge Democratic Town Committee gathered Thursday evening in the Senior Center Cafeteria to hear candidates and their representatives talk about the upcoming election.

Former First Selectwoman Nan Birdwhistell started off by talking about upcoming events where independent and undecided voters would have the opportunity to meet Democratic Gubernatorial candidate, Dan Malloy.

She was followed by Secretary of the State candidate Denise Merrill. Majority Leader Merrill spoke about how this year, Democrats have the strongest ticket for state office that they have had in years, and that while there might be an enthusiasm gap nationwide, Democrats in Connecticut have much more to be enthusiastic about than Republicans in Connecticut.

As a Secretary of the State Candidate, Majority Leader Merrill is particularly concerned about voter turnout. However, she feels that the doom and gloom about low voter turnout in the recent primaries, while bad, is not significantly different than in previous elections. She noted that the past couple of primary cycles have been exceptional, and the primary cycle most similar to this year was the 2004 primary cycle when the primaries were held in September and were also particularly low.

She spoke about how currently there is a great distrust of all the institutions of our daily lives; government, business, and religious. This often translates to low voter turnout and needs to be addressed.

One of the most important things is to try and stay away from the negative advertising that is so disenchanting the electorate. She noted that she has received considerable praise for her positive ad about getting things done as a PTA member and bringing that can do, get it done attitude to all aspects of life.

Yet with lots of money floating around in the election, especially with the $30 million that Linda McMahon is spending compared to the $9 million that Attorney General Blumenthal currently has available, we can expect a lot of negative advertising coming out in the final days of the election cycle. Yet in spite of all the negativity, when people get to the voting booth she believes they will vote for experience, the sort of experience that she, and the rest of the Democratic ticket bring.

The problem is to get people to the voting booth. One important initiative is the ninetieth anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. Ms. Merrill spoke about how people died for that right, and we have a responsibility to honor that right. She also spoke about campaigning the old fashioned way, of reaching out to families, friends and neighbors instead of relying on impersonal robocalls and television advertisements.

Majority Leader Merrill was followed by State Senator Joe Crisco. Senator Crisco thanked the people of Woodbridge for helping him qualify for the Citizens Election Program. He also spoke about getting back to the basics of getting out the vote.

Sen. Crisco spoke about various recognitions he and teams he has been on have recently received for work on breast cancer, autism and childhood domestic abuse. He did note that the national average for Autism in the United States is 1 in 150, but in Connecticut it is 1 in 100.

Sen Crisco was followed by Jacqueline Kozin. Ms. Kozin is the campaign manager for Kevin Lembo, who is running for State Comptroller. Mr. Lembo could not attend the meeting because of the Hartford Votes Candidate Forum.

Ms Kozin spoke about Mr. Lembo's experience as Connecticut's Healthcare Adovcate, where he has won major battles for people fighting for their health care. She noted that the Comptroller's office overseas the purchase of healthcare, a large part of the state budget, and that Mr. Lembo has ideas about how to streamline it.

She also spoke about his commitment to transparency and getting more of the Comptroller's data online. This will also lead to greater efficiency.

Patrick O'Sullivan, the town clerk from Orange was also in attendance and he spoke about the coordinated campaign running out of New Haven for Dan Malloy and others on the ticket.

The final candidate to speak with was Josh Hershmann. Mr. Hershmann is running a spirited traditional campaign for State Representative. He has been busy going door to door gathering support and attending many different events to meet the voters.

After the candidates spoke, Woodbridge First Selectman Ed Sheehy gave a brief update on what is happening in town. He mentioned that the new librarian has started at the town library, that the Department of Transportation has started studying the traffic issues on Amity Road and Litchfield Turnpike, that the first phase of restoration of the old firehouse is 99% complete and that the town director of finance and operations has won another award for excellence in financial reporting. Mr. Sheehy also touched briefly on the bidding to operate or own the Country Club of Woodbridge.

Other reports included a mention of the departure of Principal Mary Lou Torres from Beecher Road School, the great CMT report from Beecher Road, and a discussion about sign regulations.

Members of the Democratic Town Committee left the meeting better informed about the candidates and what is going on in town. With this increased knowledge came an increased commitment to work harder for the town of Woodbridge and for the candidates that they support.

Monday night, the Woodbridge Board of Education, at its regular monthly meeting explored several aspects of achievement as well as the state of the Beecher Road School building infrastructure.

The meeting started off with an executive session where the board conducted an exit interview with outgoing Principal Mary Lou Torres. Principal Torres has been an important part of the Beecher Road School administration and is moving on to a new position starting in October. While the primary focus of Beecher Road School is the success of the elementary school students, good educational programs recognize that we all remain students throughout our lives, and celebrates the successes of not only the young students, but also the students that are part of the staff.

Early on in the meeting, Principal Torres, assisted by sixth grade teacher Nancy White spoke to the board about the Tri-State Consortium.

The Tri-State Consortium is a learning organization devoted to assisting its member public school districts in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey in using student performance data to develop a rigorous framework for systemic planning, assessment, accreditation, and continuous improvement.

Last year, the Tri-State Consortium visited Beecher Road as part of the administration's ongoing effort to improve the quality of education at the school. The consortium recognizes the successes of the school and made recommendations about areas where the school could improve. A key area that they focus on is professional development and professional learning communities. Beecher Road School does well with its profession development, and Principal Torres' successes are a good example of this.

Following the discussion of the Tri-State Consortium report, there was a lengthy discussion of the results of last year's Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMT). The test results are usually reported in the context of schools in similar districts, called a District Reference Group (DRG).

Woodbridge scored well in its DRG as well as compared against the state as a whole. In terms of the No Child Left Behind Act, Woodbridge made Adequate Yearly Progress. However, for a high performing school district like Woodbridge, adequate may not be enough, and the board discussed how the CMTs fit into a larger framework of student assessment and other methods of analyzing the CMT scores so that the district can continue to learn from its previous experiences and improve the quality of education that is provided.

The presentation of the CMT results was the last one that Principal Torres and Ms. White will give together as Principal Torres moves on. Her service to the school district was recognized and the board moved on to the next item on the agenda.

Beecher Road School was built in phases starting in 1960, with important parts of the infrastructure being nearly fifty years old. There are major concerns about the boiler, sections of the roof and the air quality in sections of the school. A building committee has been investigating what it would take to update the infrastructure, including getting sections of the school to meet new building code standards and be more energy efficient. Such a project will be expensive and the board sought to understand which parts are most urgent, and which parts might be deferrable until we are in a better economic time.

The long board meeting continued with addressing its regular business, including correspondence, approving financial reports and hearing reports from various committees. During public comment, one parent spoke up expressing his thoughts about the CMT scores. The meeting ended with the board settling in to its continued discussion about the long term goals of the board.

Woodbridge Board of Education meetings typically occur on the third Monday of each month and are open to the public to observe and comment. Citizens are encourage to attend and participate.